So...now that you've done this can you....?

Robert Cialdini has outlined a number of different request strategies, one of which is the foot-in-the-door technique. The foot-in-the-door technique can be defined as a two-step compliance technique where the person making the requests gets the individual to agree by first having the individual agree to a smaller request (Cialdini, 2007). In other words, this is a strategy that one would implement if he or she were trying to get someone to do something that this person would not otherwise agree to initially. Therefore, the requester asks their target to perform a very small task or favor (smaller in comparison to the ultimate task or favor). Following this, the requester can return to his or her target and ask him or her to perform the ultimate task or favor, and at this point, it is more likely that he or she will agree to do it. Why is this? This agreement can be attributed to a person's desire to be consistent with his or her self-perception. Because he or she has agreed in the past, then he or she feels that he or she must be consistent with previous actions and agree again. He or she is committed to being consistent, because we are consistency-seekers.

This concept can be applied to my life pretty much everyday. I have a friend who asks me for everything, and I have this sad problem of saying no. I just don't know how. At first, the requests were little things like borrowing items, or using things but would later be returned or I would be given some appreciative gesture. These were fine. As long as you know you show your appreciation for what I've done then I'm fine with you continually borrowing or using my things. However, it has now escalated to where I don't even get an appreciative acknowledgement. It almost feels more like commands when this person asks for things. These things are not little anymore either. They are acts that cost me time and money, both of which, as a college student, I do not have a lot of. In addition, it just gets really old because it happens everyday without fail. Also, I do not think this person understands that it has now become a burden for me to assist this person. I feel really bad, but I just don't think he or she understands that these grand gestures require me to go out of my way. I wish I could say no, but because I have said yes every time in the past, I feel like I can't. I also think he or she would no longer be happy with me and think that I am mad or something. I don't really know how to handle this situation, but I do know I won't have to deal with it much longer because school is almost over.

30 days until senior week begins.

Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. New York: HarperCollins.

No, I really do like sports.

Since I was about five years old, my parents have forced me into every activity that they could think of. Apparently, I was a girl scout...for about a day. They got my involved in piano lessons and soccer, but the one that stuck with me was tennis. I have been playing tennis on and off for the past fifteen years of my life. Too bad I didn't play consistently, then maybe I wouldn't have money problems? Anyways, I did not like tennis at all when I was younger. My parents made me practice all the time and were really harsh coaches, which I think was the root of the problem. My parents kept making me feel like tennis was an obligation. I had to be outside practicing and working out, and that I had to play like a pro. Well, much to my parents' disappointment, I only made it a year and a half in college level tennis. I was ranked first during high school, but that didn't mean anything when I advanced to this level of competition. Regardless of how negatively I felt about tennis, I continued playing it. Soon, I began to enjoy the sport and now play recreationally. I need to play tennis or else I feel that something is not right with me.

These actions can be explained through the theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance can be defined as an imbalance between our beliefs and our behaviors, and when this dissonance is created, we are driven to reduce it by changing our beliefs (Festinger, 1957). My initial attitude towards tennis was dislike and unenthusiastic participation, but my behavior was consistent(ish) play. However, because the attitude I had was in disagreement with my behavior, I began to change my attitude. I told myself that tennis was worth it because I was a) getting a great work out in b) working on my mental toughness c) learning skills that can be applied to everyday life and d) gaining more confidence. By looking at the positives that tennis can bring, my attitude changed to love and enjoyment of the sport rather than ew, I really have to run and swing a racket?

Thanks cognitive dissonance for helping me see the benefits of tennis. Unfortunately, I am in my off season. Summer should bring it back... I hope.

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Participant Observer Blog - IAT

We all unconsciously sort people into different categories and make quick perceptions about people. Sometimes these unconscious judgments won’t meet our approval because they are against what we present to others, but how can you deny automatic responses?

The Implicit Associates Test (IAT) was designed to illustrate that we are under an illusion that we are better than how we really are. More specifically, it was designed to point out that there are unconscious feelings that we have hidden from ourselves and others. A person is either unwilling or unable to admit to something. The person is either unconsciously hiding something from themselves or from other people. The IAT was designed to measure implicit attitudes (Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald, 2002). Implicit attitudes can be defined as actions or judgments that are controlled by an automatic response that the person is unaware of (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998).

The IAT offers a set of test options to view your unconscious feelings towards certain stereotypes or prejudices. For example, there are tests over age, sexuality, and skin-tone. The age IAT requires the test taker to distinguish between old and young faces, which indicate the test taker’s preference for either old or young. The sexuality IAT tests over whether a person can distinguish words and symbols that represent gay and straight people and which they have a preference for. The skin-tone asks that the test taken distinguish between light and dark-skinned faces and shows which skin-tone he or she has a preference for. The IAT can be considered a reliable test because it resists self-presentation strategies. Because the tests require the test taker to respond automatically, or the results cannot be interpreted, then the test taker is forced to respond with their true unconscious decisions (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998).

I took two IAT tests and retook one of them to see if I received the same result. The two IATs I took were the Gender-career IAT and the Weapons IAT. My result for the gender-career IAT indicated that I have a slight association preference for Male with Career and Female with Family compared to Female with Career and Male with Family. For the Weapons IAT, the results showed that I have a slight association of White Americans with Weapons compared to Black Americans.

The Gender-Career IAT results both surprised and did not surprise me. It did not surprise me because I am an extremely family oriented person who was primarily raised by her mother, which is also odd because my mom worked two jobs while my dad worked one. I also like to see myself as a the person who, when this situation applies, to want to be a stay at home mom until my kids are old enough that it is acceptable for me to go back to work. Although, I am also the type of person that wants to have a successful career, much like everyone else. However, the words from the test are words that I would to be associated with me (e.g., professional, and manager).

My results for the Weapons IAT were also not very surprising. I watch television shows that mostly focus on white suspects, if that counts for anything. Also, for someone who wants to maybe work for a rap/hip hop label or artist, I do not think it would be a good idea if I showed a preference to associate Black Americans with weapons over White Americans. It just wouldn’t be in my best interest. In addition, of all the Black Americans that I know, I cannot associate anyone one of them with a weapon, but I have plenty of White American friends that I can associate with weapons.

Based on my results, I believe that they accurately portray me for who I think I am. I do still kind of like to believe in the ideal of a female being with family and the male with the job that provides, but I do wish that I was ranked neutral because I want a female AND male to fall under both categories. In a relationship the male and female should share both responsibilities. I think it would help each partner understand each other better. My Weapons IAT result is one that I do not believe defines me, nor would I care to change it just because it goes against the majority of people according to Project Implicit. Like I mentioned, I do not think it defines me in any way. I believe that that is just how I see things based on my own experiences.

Completing these IATs did slightly make me think a little differently about stereotypes and prejudice than I did before, but that’s just because it was available to me. I will not change my opinions based on results of these tests. If my results do change it will be based off of any personal experiences I gain, or what information is available to me at the time that I retake the test. Like most people, I try not to stereotype or be prejudice against others, and I think I do this to the best of my ability. However, when I wait tables, trust me when I say I stereotype. There has only been one table out of the hundred plus I have waited on that has completely surprised me in tipping. I do not wish to say what race it was because it isn’t one that will immediately come to mind, but this table left thirty percent, which made my entire night. I was only expecting maybe thirteen percent. I try my best to wait tables all fairly and without discrimination because I think they’ll tip me poorly, but honestly, it’s not something that I can help. Because in those first few minutes, I can pretty much tell how you’re going to tip me and I know that there isn’t much that I can improve on to squeeze another couple bucks out. I also have co-workers that refuse to wait on certain races because of bad experiences; I don’t want to be like that. I try to look past this stereotype and give them the benefit of the doubt.

To see if my results were consistent, I retook the Gender-Career IAT. Ironically, my results changed. The results indicated that I have a slight association for Female with Career and Male with Family compared to Male with Career and Female with Family. I thought this was extremely funny. Either, I really am neutral and it just depends on how I am feeling and what information is available to me at the time, or I thought too much when taking the test the second time. I do remember seeing more red x’s the second time around, though. I don’t know if this changes my opinion about the IAT. I still think it is a valid and reliable test because it does account for self-presentation strategies by only interpreting valid automatic responses.

I think the IAT is an awesome development, and when I am able and willing to see what the results will be for the others tests, I want to take them.

Nosek, B. Banaji, M, & Greenwald, T. (2002). Background Information. Retrieved from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/background/index.jsp.

Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480.

Social Identity Theory- Do I Belong Here?

Not everyone is fully confident with themselves, but we all do what we can to think positively of ourselves. Our self-esteem is comprised of our positive and negative self-evaluations. We have a strong desire for high self-esteem, and when we need to enhance it, one method we can use is social identity theory. Social identity theory states that people favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance our self-esteem. Ingroups are defined as groups in which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging and identity; whereas, outgroups are groups in which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging or identity.

To enhance our self-esteem using social identity theory, there are two pathways in which an individual can take: personal identity and social identity. Through personal identity, one will gloat about personal achievements. For example, I know someone that takes pride in her academic achievements, which we are all entitled to do, but she does it in a manner that is unhealthy. In taking pride in her high grades, she belittles those around her who did not do as well and make them feel worse. She is not relating to anyone else, only to herself. Another such example would be a guy that I knew back in high school. When I was on the tennis team in high school, we had a guy who didn't want to socialize with our team. He was always about himself and not the success of the whole group. He flaunted his personal accomplishments (e.g., gold medals and advancing to higher competitions), but he didn't work with the team to ensure everyone was reaching their potential. Both of these people feel better about themselves when they do better than others.

Social identity is when self-esteem is enhanced through group accomplishments. For example, this past weekend, we executed a wonderfully successful event, as we do every week. As a council, UPC, is consistently getting complimented on our efficiency, team work, and leadership. We have a cohesive collection of leaders and followers. We are a well balanced organization. We take direction well and interact with others in a professional and respective manner. We had multiple compliments from professional staff congratulating our success, and I feel that I am a more worthy person just being apart of UPC. Also, in high school, I was on our track team. We won our distract conference four years in a row. Though I wasn't the most valuable player on the team, I still felt like I belonged. I got along with everyone and was associated with all the success that our team experienced.

There are also other drives to enhance self-esteem than just the desire to acquire a more positive outlook about oneself. Threats to one's self-esteem can also lead a person to seek membership in an organization. Honestly, I am guilty of doing this. I do enjoy being an officer in organizations that I am involved in, but I need to feel that I am more than just an expendable member. I run for offices or leadership positions to feel that way, and it works.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2008). Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. In Social Psychology (7th ed., pp. 135-153). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

I promise, I'm not arrogant.

Self-presentation is defined as the process that we take to shape what people think of us and what we think of ourselves. The methods in which self-presentation is utilize include: what we do, what we say, how we dress, and how we act. I just wanted to share some ways that I consciously try to present myself in a positive manner by using self-promotion (i.e., an attempt to gain respect through competence).

First, I make lists and keep a planner. By doing these things, I am trying to come off as extremely organized, and it works. I get comments about how organized and on top of things I am quite often, but in all honesty, I really don’t think I’m that organized. I do get my things done when they need to be done, but just because I can cross things off of a list and plan out my time doesn’t make me awesome. It just means I know how to focus my attention, but if you’re going to be impressed with my ability to do this, then by all means, I welcome it. Although, I would also like to add that these lists and color coded planner pages do keep me sane.

Second, I don’t really want to admit this, but I will. I think that I am really qualified at my job. As the appointed off-campus marketing coordinator, I have done a great job at securing some radio ads as well as online ads. My failure, though, was in interviews. It’s extremely difficult when the artist’s publicist doesn’t do much, and when people won’t return your phone calls, but I am not attributing this to anyone. It’s like a mutual fault if that is possible. Back to me being qualified, it has paid off enough to where I am trusted to do things that professional staff is responsible for. Also, the day of Large Act, I have been given the title of being the “manager”. I will really be working under Jaime, but either way, I’m the big boss’s right hand woman. If that doesn’t elicit some feeling of respect or intimidation, then I don’t know what will.

I really do not enjoy that this sounds like I am patting myself on my back, but that’s what self-promotion is. I am completely guilty of utilizing this form of self-presentation to gain the respect and confidence of the professional staff.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2008). Self-Presentation.. In Social Psychology (7th ed., pp. 82-83). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Because I Love It.

This is all I could think about while I was reading the section of Chapter 3 about the overjustification effect. The overjustification effect can be defined as a decrease in intrinsic motivation when an activity has become associated with a reward. In other words, when the activity that you do out of pure joy and satisfaction now precedes a reward of some kind, then you begin to lose interest in performing the task because you used to work for the reward and now it just comes easily (Kassin, Fein, and Markus, 2008).

I have been working for the past eleven months on the Large Act concert and FINALLY, we will be able to announce it tomorrow. You have no idea how much effort and emotion we have all given to this event. Our emotions have ranged from extremely sad to terrified to stressed and to ECSTATIC. The happiness that we are all feeling right now because we are preparing to share our hard work with other people is so thrilling. We are concerned with how the campus will respond to the artist we have chosen, but we decided that this is the best choice and time. Because of the work I have done with UPC and Large Act, I have decided to pursue this as a career path. What terrifies me the most is if I will begin to no longer be intrinsically motivated to work as hard on concerts and entertainment public relations. I really love what I do with these things and if the overjustification effect takes over I don't know what I will go into. I think a paycheck would be nice, but I don't want it to turn into an extrinsic motivation.

It's part of the reason I want to go to New York. I want to be in that environment. Fast paced, stressed, and working on music promotion all the time. I am so happy when I am working on it and do not mind doing anything for the success of the event. This is such a big deal that we have a newspaper coming to cover the ping pong drop tomorrow. How awesome is that? If I lose my intrinsic motivation to do this, then I will have lost all the passion I have for work. These emotions that I feel correspond with Shachter's two-factor theory of emotion. The two-factor theory of emotion states that the experience of emotion depends on two factors: physiological arousal and the person's cognitive interpretation of that arousal (Kass, Fein, and Markus, 2008). My heart races and there's a definite increase in galvanic skin response. I smile a lot. When we went downstairs for lunch today I was telling everyone I know and jumping around the entire commons. I don't think anyone has ever seen me that hyper. I perceived this reaction to not only be overcome with excitement and a sense of accomplishment, but that I truly know what I'm doing and that I love doing it. There really isn't a doubt to how much it makes me happy. When I'm doing something right with this, like when I get feedback about the work I am doing, it boosts my confidence and helps me believe in my ability to successfully execute a plan.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2008). Self Perceptions of Motivation. In Social Psychology (7th ed., pp. 59-60). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Bad day?

Seems like I wasn't the only one with a bad day.

These are the things that I would like to blame my bad day on. These will be both personal and situational attributions.

-lack of sleep

-neglecting my studies

-focusing on my social life

-not caring enough

-opportunity

-need

I believe the beginning of my bad day began last night when I was studying for my test that I had this morning. I was only up until three, so it was a normal hour really. I kind of studied last night, but I was mostly hanging out with a friend while he played the piano in the Bishop's Lounge. That would be a combination of me neglecting my studies and needing to focus on my social life, which I did all weekend prior to this as well. It's my last free weekend! I go back to work at Applebee's on Friday. :( Anyways, I went home and set my alarm for like 6:30 because then I could get in a short work out and shower before my exam. Did not wake up until two hours later, so I had to rush to get "ready". I wouldn't call what I looked like ready. But, this already put me in a foul mood because I do not like being rushed. I enjoy taking my time and being semi early for things. Especially on mornings such as this one so that I could look over my notes one last time and relax a little before my test. That didn't happen and quite honestly I do not feel good about my exam, which I expected. That didn't help my morning out at all. I then had to ask for rent and wait on it, which is super annoying. Our rent is due the first of every month, but somehow that little fact gets forgotten. I do not like being late on rent or bills. I'm seriously worried what will happen when I'm not responsible for it anymore (for our house). I predict late fees.

Then I went to work where I learned some news that could potentially make my extracurricular work a little more difficult, but it will be fine. I will be able to handle it. Fortunately, they are tasks that I do not necessarily see as work because I enjoy doing them so much. I just don't know what the consequences will be. It's not a hard job to do, it's just that the people responsible for it don't care enough to execute things the best that they can.

Also, I am only taking nine hours of classes (work wise it's more like....six), but with everything else I do, I've realized that I'm falling behind. But I can't blame it all on my extracurricular activities, I have to blame it on myself as well. I'm going back to work at Applebee's for one thing. My supervisor thinks I'm crazy, but I need the money. Well, I don't need it, but it's nice to have. Also, I'm doing so much with internship that it's crazy. I'm also working on my application for the New York program. I have to put together a portfolio? Seriously, what is that? I just learned what my passion was a year ago. That's another thing, I don't want to bust my ass in a class I'm not motivated in when I won't even be using the information in the future. I should have been a Business/Comm major. Honestly.

OA made me sad today as well because we got our mentee's progress report and it seriously made me sad. I wish I could spend more time with my mentee, but I don't think she wants it. Her grades are average and below. I want to help her, but I can only do so much with the little time I have with her. I talked to her about her grades and she seems cooperative, but I know that she doesn't have that same encouragement at home. Hopefully next week she'll come with more homework to work on.

Then I had an unnecessary spat with a friend. I will just attribute this to him feeling ill. It just completely capped off my unsatisfying day.

"Distinguishing Truth from Deception"

Whether or not people are willing to admit it, we all lie about something. We are all not perfect. I'm sorry. Lying only makes you normal. Like when you're trying to be polite to people you aren't too particularly fond of, that's lying.

The mini section in the book about lie detection, which serves as the title of my blog, summarizes lie-detection in many forms. Examples of such would be a person's voice or his or her nonverbal behavior. I will admit that my voice does change when I am lying, which obviously has been proven. I'm a really bad liar. My voice, as you know from lecture, does get higher, but not only that I will always look around, play with my hair, and tilt my head. I'm totally giving myself away, but watch me try and get out of something and you will see how easy it is to spot my signs. For example, today in the office a student had come into the office offering involvement in an organization and I totally said that I would...I know I won't. Like it's my last semester. If I'm not already in it, I'm not joining it for three months. I think that would be dumb, especially since I have a ton of things to do this semester.

Another example would be one of my guy friends. He is an "entrepreneur". Basically, he has not gone to college and has no plans to attend at the moment because he has made enough money to do whatever he wants. I met him a year ago, and he is a really good friend. I actually met him through a guy I don't talk to anymore. Not awkward at all. Anyways, I'm going to assume he comes from money because he has had very few jobs and was raised by a single and absent father. I know he means well with people he cares about, but when I see him interact with people he needs for whatever task he is pursuing at the time it's like he's a completely different person. He's professional for one, but he is also someone who knows he's charming, so he uses it to his advantage. He'll always smile to his left when he's trying to get you to do something he knows you don't want to do, but that same smile can be for when he's hiding something that he isn't willing to share. Then he'll look down to his right and gesture with his hands while he speaks. I've interacted with him enough times to know that he doesn't behave this way unless he's trying to persuade you to do something, like buy a cell phone (sucker).

My mother is currently laid off, and she has been for over a year now. She kept this from me for a month. She would always call or text me but I just attributed it to her missing me. However, I then realized how much time she was spending with my dad at our farm. I just thought she was working from home, which she did often because she worked for corporate, which - for her company at the time - is housed in New York. Then when I went home for a break, I noticed that her usual work items weren't out and that she wasn't receiving as many phone calls. She had more junk she had bought in her room and the clothes she had out (she throws her recent clothes on a chair) weren't work attire. I was puzzled by the lack of professional clothing and sudden increase in decorations (things she didn't have time to shop for in the past), then we were having dinner one night and she mentioned going to spend more time with my dad. I was even more surprised by this because her and my dad didn't spend a lot of time together (they're married, but my dad lives on our farm in East Texas whereas my mom lives in our home three hours away). So I asked her about how she found the time for that and why she had all of these new things. She finally confessed that she had been laid off from work over three weeks prior and didn't want to tell me with school going on. I wish she had told me so that I had found a job sooner. I got a job two weeks later, but it still made me feel bad that I was still getting money from her. All the money I had from my summer job was running low, so I had to ask her. I do not like asking my parents for money at all, especially now since I have rent and bills in addition to expenses. Fortunately, I haven't had to ask. Tangents. My mom was lying to me, but to help me, protect me, and I did not even notice. If it weren't for all the time she was spending with my dad who knows if I would have ever figured it out.

Lying is something that we all do often, and we do it well (most of us anyways). We all lie about what we're doing, what we think, how we feel, who we've seen, what we buy, what we like, and what we don't like. We lie to make ourselves look more attractive, to get out of situations, to impress an employer, or even for the thrill of it. Lying is the number one way to help guide a person to develop your desired opinion of how he or she sees you. It's genius and ridiculous at the same time.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm really excited to be creating this blog for school. I think it will be a fun task because I already blog on my own.

Just to give a little background about me... I am a senior, but I'm graduating in December because I am hoping to go to New York in the fall. So really this is my last academic semester. I couldn't be more excited.

I am one of three students in charge of our fifth annual Large Act concert, so I will most likely be posting about it if things I encounter while planning it relates to something we're discussing in class.

Yeah, I'm really not all that interesting so that's what I have for now. :)